Dynamic assignment of media advertising orders to broadcast inventory

ABSTRACT

A planning system can receive media advertising orders including flexibility attributes indicating whether the orders are flexible with regard to various different circumstances. The planning system can obtain both booked an unbooked inventory from a traffic and billing system, and determine associations or re-associations between the advertising orders and the booked and unbooked inventory based on the flexibility attributes. The planning system can then generate a non-guaranteed order including the associations or re-associations, and transmit the order to media delivery system. The planning system can obtain feedback and/or real time data that can be used to reassess existing associations, and in some cases adjust the flexibility attribute values.

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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to media broadcasting, and moreparticularly to dynamically assigning media advertising orders to anycombination of previously booked and currently unbooked broadcastinventory.

2. Description of Related Art

Media stations can broadcast media content to end-users via FM, AM,Television, Cable, Satellite, or the Internet. Some media stations are“commercial free,” but require end-users to pay a periodic fee toreceive that station's broadcast or stream. Other media stationsbroadcast content without charge to the end-users, but receive revenuefrom the sale of broadcast time, commonly referred to as “inventory.”

Various automated inventory management systems are available, and thesesystems typically map orders to available inventory using traditionalfactors such as demo/price efficiency, market and station balance, andfair and equal rotation. The mapping performed by current systems isgenerally a simple binary association, and once assigned to a unit ofinventory, the mapping is fixed, and cannot change unless the automatedsystem is bypassed and manual intervention is taken. The mapping oforders to inventory is performed on a first-come, first-served basis,and is generally performed at the time a new order is placed. Thus, oncean order is mapped to a particular unit of inventory, the system makesthat unit of inventory unavailable for later-submitted orders.

Additionally, conventional media advertising is based on finite andstatic data sets. The two primary buyer/seller processes, referred to asplanning and campaign copy splitting, are generally third party audienceratings, which are estimates of a listening audience, an estimate oflistening audience), and station attributes such as market, format, andtime of day. The third party ratings generally change only twice a year,and in most cases broadcasters must manually approve each proposedadvertising plan.

Furthermore, proper attribution of advertising can be difficult todemonstrate. For example, if a person hears an advertisement on theradio in his car, he may go home and search for the brand on theInternet, where an advertisement is displayed. In some such cases, theInternet advertisement is given credit for the exposure without takinginto account that the radio advertisement should have received at leastpartial credit for the exposure.

A broadcast network lineup, sometimes referred to as a plan or scheduleis generally considered to be a contractual order that the seller andbuyer have transacted. It is usually a list of stations, weeks, dayparts, and number of spots that the seller will air on behalf of thebuyer. Originally broadcasting network lineups were referred to aspre-defined “wired networks.” And to make buying advertising timeeasier, these wired networks always offered the same lineup, and byextension the same audience. Eventually, a new network product wascreated to accommodate variation—“unwired networks”. Unwired networksare a customized, unique network plan based on the buyer'sspecification, or “spec”. A spec or specification is the set of goalsthe buyer wants to achieve from the media plan, for example the totalbudget, desired number of impressions, the time period, any stationformat exclusions, etc. In conventional systems, however, the spec isdefined against the same finite and static data sets—third partyaudience and station attributes.

In both cases (wired and unwired), once the plan (station lineup) isbooked or sold, it cannot change—the “spend” is guaranteed and will runas initially defined. This is a traditional limitation because withfinite and static data, it is impracticable to change the plan's stationlineup during an advertising campaign. Furthermore, in both cases (wiredand unwired), the campaign copy rotation is limited to the station'scontextual attributes—market, format, time. Besides being limited, it isoperationally expensive to manage complicated copy rotation rules.

As discussed above, conventional media inventory sales and managementsystems, while adequate in many respects, are less than perfect.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to apparatus and methods of operationthat are further described in the following Brief Description of theDrawings, the Detailed Description of the Invention, and the claims.Various features and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent from the following detailed description of the invention madewith reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a broadcasting system inaccordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating information flow within a mediainventory sales and management system, in accordance with variousembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an inventory selection system, inaccordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a traffic and billing workflow in amedia broadcast system, in accordance with various embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a submission summary chart, inaccordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a database schema associating orderswith inventory, in accordance with various embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 7 is a table illustrating booked and unbooked inventory along withflexibility attributes associated with the inventory, in accordance withvarious embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 8-12 are diagrams illustrating various order-to-inventoryassociation scenarios, in accordance with various embodiments of thepresent disclosure; and

FIG. 13 is a high-level block diagram of a processing system, part orall of which can be used to implement various servers, machines,systems, and devices in accordance with various embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In various embodiments discussed herein, a planning system receivesmedia advertising order specifications that include flexibilityattributes, which indicate how much flexibility a broadcaster has inscheduling broadcast time to fulfill the media advertising orders. Forexample, a flexibility attribute can specify that the order is fully orpartially flexible with regard to week, day of the week, time, daypart,station, or otherwise. In some embodiments, the flexibility attributecan be converted to a number on a scale between X₁ and X₂, where one endof the scale represents maximum flexibility with regard to scheduling,the other end of the scale represents minimum flexibility with regard toscheduling, and numbers between X₁ and X₂ represent varying degrees ortypes of flexibility.

The planning system can obtain available inventory from a traffic andbilling system employed by an automated broadcast system, where theavailable inventory can include all future inventory, regardless ofwhether the future inventory has already been booked, or remainsunbooked. The planning system can use the flexibility attributesassociated with the current order and with any orders previously bookedinto the future inventory, to alter the previous associations under theproper circumstances.

Consider, for example, a case where a new order is inflexible, andrequires placement into a particular daypart, on a particular date, andon a particular station, but there is no unbooked inventory that matchesthe specifications of a new order. According to various embodiments ofthe present invention, if a previously booked inventory item wouldsatisfy the new order's specifications, and is associated with aprevious order that is flexible with regard to station, but not withregard to the daypart or the date, the association of the bookedinventory item with the previous order can be removed, and replaced byan association with the new order. The previous order can then bere-associated with a different inventory item on a different stationthat meets the previous order's daypart and date requirements on adifferent station. By way of contrast, in currently known systems thenew order would be left unfilled by the scheduling system, because theonly future inventory item that satisfied the new order's specificationswas already booked, and would not be identified as being an availableinventory item.

After modifying the associations of the inventory item, the planningsystem can generate a non-guaranteed order including revisedassociations, and transmit that order to a media delivery system.

By using flexibility attributes associated with an order, the planningsystem can be responsible for modifying scheduled advertisement airtimes and stations based on generalized purchaser requirement. Forexample, an inventory purchaser may indicate that they want to achieve aspecified market tier index, and leave the decision about how to achievethat market tier index to the broadcaster's planning system. In someembodiments employing flexibility attributes, the planning system canreevaluate and/or modify inventory-to-order associations on a continualbasis, based on the flexibility attributes and the current progresstowards satisfying the purchaser's criteria. Thus, if a highly flexibleorder has been re-associated to accommodate less flexible orders, upuntil the point of evaluation, and the evaluation indicates that at thecurrent rate the flexible order will not reach a market tier index thatsatisfies the purchaser's requirements, the level of flexibility can belowered to prevent the flexible order from continuously being “bumped”in favor of less flexible orders. The converse, i.e. increasing theflexibility attribute to make the order more flexible, can be performedif the order is significantly over performing with respect to thepurchaser's requirements. In some embodiments, the evaluation can bebased on feedback received from a media delivery system, radioattribution information received from a broadcaster, web service, orother source; user feedback, purchaser feedback, or the like.

In some implementations, initial association of an order to an inventoryitem can be delayed until occurrence of a trigger event is detected. Forexample, if a trigger event included in an event-targeted orderspecification indicates that the order is to be fulfilled exclusivelyupon occurrence of a particular weather event, the order may not beassociated with an inventory item until the planning system receivesinformation indicating that the specified weather event has occurred. Atthat point, the planning system can evaluate the flexibility of bookedinventory items and, if appropriate, replace a previous associationbetween one or more booked inventory items and previously scheduledorders with a new association to the event-targeted order. In someembodiments, this evaluation is not performed if unbooked inventoryitems are available.

Various embodiments of a media inventory sales and management systemdiscussed herein, provide additional, dynamically updated inputs, togive the planner new exclusion/targeting criteria and/or give thebooking agent algorithm an additional optimization criteria.

Yet other embodiments provide additional, dynamically updating inputs tothe campaign copy rotation process, to permit copy splitting on realtime environmental conditions or other real time insights

Still other embodiments go beyond the traditional, static stationcontext of format and market to provide ad planning and delivery systemswith sufficient information to be aware of what shows are running duringthe day, which personalities are on-air, and what is being discussed.

Further embodiments provide dynamically updating pricing information tothe inventory, so that a computing device programmed to implement abooking agent, can automatically attempt to optimize the yield oninventory to choose the best inventory placements (spots). The bookingagent can also be adapted to add a premium to or discount the plan toaccount for inventory fragmentation, thereby eliminating the need formanual approvals.

In some embodiments, a media inventory sales and management system canprovide plans that are not defined by a list of stations (the lineup)but, are instead defined against the buyer's spec, which can itself beautomated against a dynamic data set. In some such embodiments, everyday, week or other time period, the booking agent can create a newstation lineup, without being bound to the station lineup as it existedat the time an order was booked. For example, if the dynamic data feedcreated a plan against stations 1-100 for week one, the data feed mayshow that the desired audience has moved and is now best represented bystations 500-150 during week two. The media inventory sales andmanagement system can change the plan for week 2, accordingly.

Media broadcasters generally know exactly when spots run on-air. Invarious embodiments, this data can be indexed against digitalattribution measurements to calculate radio attribution. For example, adirect response advertiser may have a radio ad that asks “go to websiteABC or call XYZ”. A website cookie and call tracking number can bemeasured to track activation against the market (geo) and time of air.This attribution data can be substantially immediately conveyed to theadvertiser via a real-time updating web site/dashboard.

In some embodiments, a system can employ a dynamically optimizing planthat uses an attribution data set as a criteria for adjusting the plan'saudience and station lineup. In this manner, a media advertisement plancan automatically increase reach and frequency in those markets whereattribution/activation is highest or lowest, depending on theadvertiser's goals.

Unless otherwise explicitly limited or required by context, the terms“broadcast,” “media broadcast,” and derivations thereof used hereinrefer to transmission of content to more than one end user, and caninclude transmissions by terrestrial antennas, satellites, streamingmedia stations, and the like.

Referring to FIG. 1, a system 100 will be discussed according to variousembodiments of the present disclosure. System 100 includes mediaautomation system 110, for example a NexGen® automation system, whichcan control and automate various media broadcast functions; and trafficand billing system 120, for example a Viero® traffic system, which canprovide control for various traffic and billing functions such asentering and editing orders, and scheduling spots. System 100 can alsoinclude planning system 173 and order delivery system 175, which can beused to book orders, establish non-binary associations between ordersand inventory, re-evaluate order-to inventory associations, generateorders 225 that include the associations, and deliver those orders,sometimes referred to herein as non-guaranteed orders, to traffic andbilling system 120 which can use the non-guaranteed orders to generate alog specifying particular items and to be broadcast and the placement ofthose items within the broadcast. Although illustrated as being separatefrom traffic and billing system 120 some or all of the functionalityand/or structure of planning system 173 and order delivery system 175can be incorporated into traffic and billing system 120.

System 100 can include over-the-air broadcast system 150, through whichcontent can be broadcast via broadcast tower 151. System 100 can alsoinclude one or more communication networks, for example, Internet 161,which can be used to transmit or stream media content to user 171.

In various embodiments, system 100 can also include a web service 193,such as iHeart Radio®, which can obtain history, preference, operatingcondition feedback, playout confirmation, and other information, andprovide some or all of that information to media automation system 110,to provide user 171 with tailored content. In various embodiments, webservice 193 can interact with advertisement system 122, which caninclude a third party advertisement system, to provide advertisementstailored to user 171 based on either or both explicitly providedpreferences and inferred preferences.

Various media sources can also be included in system 100, for example,individual source media 142, media database 141, programming fromanother market received via network 140, and programming transmitted bysatellite 131, which can be received via satellite receiver 130. In someembodiments, although not explicitly illustrated, satellite 131 canbroadcast content directly to user 171. Note that in some embodiments,over-the-air broadcasting can include both satellite-based over-the-airbroadcasting and terrestrial over-the-air broadcasting.

System 100 may also include advertisement system 122, sometimes referredto as an external advertisement system, or a network advertisementsystem, which can be used for provisioning general advertisement contentfor streaming broadcast and over-the-air broadcast via the traffic andbilling system 120, in addition to providing targeted or tailoredadvertising as requested by web service 193. The traffic and billingsystem 120 and the advertisement system 122 may communicate with eachother, and/or with over-the-air audio server 112, streaming media server111, and/or web service 193 to coordinate local and generaladvertisement content.

In general, traffic and billing system 120 can be used to providecontrol and monitoring of the sale and scheduling of spot blockscontaining one or more spots, and to determine which spot blocks are tobe played on which streaming and broadcast stations at particular times.This information can be provided in the form of a log file in someembodiments. Media automation system 110 can use server 113 to gatherprogramming and media information from various sources, and combine thatinformation with spot block information 119 to generate a log fileindicating a substantially complete representation of which media andspots are to be broadcast. The log file and related information can beprovided to both over-the-air audio server 112 for over-the-airbroadcast, and to streaming media server 111 streaming broadcast.

Some or all of the content broadcast using over-the-air audio server 112or streaming media server 111 can include primary and/or advertisingcontent delivered by server 113. In at least some embodiments, contentdelivered by server 113 includes separate information to be embedded ina broadcast at or near the time of broadcast by over-the-air audioserver 112 or over-the-air broadcast system 150. In other embodiments,the content delivered by server 113 can include pre-embeddedinformation. In at least some embodiments, over-the-air audio server112, replacement content server 111, or over-the-air broadcast system150 can create, obtain, or embed their own content.

Media automation system 110 can also include production machine 116,which receives media content from network 140, media database 141,individual source media 142, control room machine 115, and utilitymachine 114, each of which can be connected to server 113. Mediaautomation system 110 can also include streaming media server 111 andover-the-air audio server 112, which provides media content toover-the-air broadcast system 150. Server 113 can provide audio, images,video, or mixed media content to one or both of over-the-air audioserver 112 and replacement content server 111. Note that even thoughaudio servers are illustrated and discussed, the techniques andprinciples described herein can also be applied to images, video andmixed media content.

In at least one embodiment, one or more of the illustrated servers canbe implemented as a virtual server implemented on the same hardware asanother of the illustrated servers. In each case, however,implementation of a server requires the use of hardware, and generalreference to a “server,” unless otherwise explicitly stated or requiredby the context, includes hardware components used to implement theserver functionality. Furthermore, various distributed processingtechniques can be used to spread functionality of one or more of theillustrated servers across multiple different machines.

Traffic and billing system 120 is, in some embodiments, connected toserver 113 via a utility machine 114. In other embodiments, traffic andbilling system 120 may be connected to server 113 through othermachines, for example a control room machine 115, production machine116, or directly connected to server 113. In other embodiments, trafficand billing system 120 and server 113 can be included in a singlemachine, or collection of machines that are co-located or connected in adistributed fashion. In yet further embodiments, traffic and billingsystem 120 can include local instances or subsystems associated with oneor more media stations, and a backend subsystem used to providecentralized control or services to each of the local instances orsubsystems.

In various embodiments, spot block information 119 can include requestsfor identification of potential spots available for inclusion in anunder-filled spot block, responses to such requests, bumped spotnotifications, broadcast logs and lists, spot files, parameters relatedto available, unavailable, and potential spots, spot block parameters,ranks, conditional information, various status information related tospots, and the like.

Also, traffic and billing system 120 can be connected to advertisementsystem 122. Advertisement system 122 can, in various embodiments,operate to provide network inventory directly to media automation system110 for broadcast in accordance with a broadcast log specifyinginventory allocations 123 generated by the traffic and billing system120. Traffic and billing system 120 can provide the broadcast log toserver 113 of media automation system 110. In some embodiments, thebroadcast log can include entries that specify spots reserved forplayout of local inventory by media automation system 110, andplaceholder, or network, entries specifying particular portions of spotblocks reserved for playout of network inventory by advertisement system122.

Referring next to FIG. 2, a diagram illustrating information flow withina media inventory sales and management system 200, will be discussed inaccordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure. Mediainventory sales and management system 200 can include buying system 210,planning system 273, delivery system 275, and media attributiondashboard 241. Buying system 210 can control and manage some or allaspects of planning, buying, and billing related to purchases of mediainventory related to media buyer 203. Planning system 273 can matchorders against inventory to generate proposed and final network plans,or lineups, by matching inventory to particular orders using flexibilityattributes associated with those orders. The planning functionsperformed by buying system 210 can, in various embodiments, be differentthan the planning functions of planning system 273 in type, scope,and/or timing.

For example, buying system 210 can be used by media buyer 203 and/or amedia seller 205 to obtain and provide information that aids media buyer203 in making a purchasing decision. For example, buying system 210 canbe used by media buyer 203 to provide one or more media advertisingorder specification, for example audience specification 209, to mediaseller 205. Likewise, buying system 210 can be used by media seller 205to provide proposed network plan 207 to media buyer 203. In at leastsome embodiments, buying system 210 receives inputs, for exampleadvertiser audience insights 211 and/or Nielsen ratings 213, and usesthose inputs to assist media buyer 203 in determining audiencespecification 209.

In various embodiments, media advertising order specifications caninclude information specifying daypart percentage targets, gross ratingpoint (GRP) targets, market index targets, target audience preferencesand requirements, information indicating a length of campaign, andvarious flexibility attributes indicating whether the order is flexiblewith regard to daypart, station, week, day of the week, or the like. Anorder may, in some implementations, include information identifying oneor more specific advertisement items, sometimes referred to asadvertisement creatives, and flexibility attributes applicable toindividual advertisement creatives. In other embodiments one or moreflexibility attributes can be applied to the order as a whole. In someembodiments, a combination of order-wide flexibility attributes andindividual-item flexibility attributes can be used.

Flexibility attributes used by planning system 273 can be based on, e.g.derived from, the flexibility attributes included in a media orderspecification. For example, flexibility values included in an orderspecification can be translated into a number between 0 and 1, with 0indicating maximum flexibility, and 1 indicating minimum flexibility. Insome instances, media buyer 203 may be asked to provide answersindicating yes or no flexibility in 4 different scenarios: 1) daypartflexibility; 2) flexibility on week; 3) flexibility on stations; and 4)flexibility on daypart, week, and station. If media buyer 203 selectsscenario 4, the order can be assigned a flexibility attribute value of1; selection of any one of scenarios 1, 2, or 3, can result in the orderbeing assigned a flexibility attribute value of 0.25; if items 1 and 2are selected the order can be assigned a flexibility attribute value of0.5; and so on.

The value of a flexibility attribute assigned to either an individualitem, to an entire order, or to some portion of an order, need not belinearly assigned as in this example, so that selection of someflexibility attributes is given more weight than others. For example,flexibility on station can be weighted to increase or decrease theoverall flexibility attribute value by 0.3, rather than 0.25, andflexibility with regard to week is assigned a value of 0.2. In variousembodiments, adjustment factors can be applied upon initial placement ofan order and/or on a dynamic basis. Thus, for example, as the timeremaining for order fulfillment decreases due to the passage of time,the value of the flexibility attribute used by planning system 273 canbe decreased, or increased, to indicate less flexibility.

For example, planning system 273 can assign two different flexibilityattribute values two orders having specifications indicating flexibilitywith regard to week, if the two orders are to be fulfilled overdifferent time periods. Thus, in some embodiments, if a first order isto be fulfilled over a period of a month and is flexible with regard todaypart, and a second order to be fulfilled over a period of 3 weeks isalso flexible with regard to daypart, the first order can be assigned aflexibility indicator value indicating higher flexibility than theflexibility indicator value assigned to the second order, because thesecond order has a shorter fulfillment period, and it may be moredifficult to reach specification targets in the shorter period of time.

Planning system 273 can dynamically adjust flexibility attribute valuesover time based on one or more of the following: advertiser audienceinsights 215, broadcaster audience insights 231, Nielsen ratings 233,information from automated price and yield system 235, real time stationand show content 237, and media attribution data 239. Media attributiondata can be received from input to media attribution dashboard 241. Insome embodiments, digital performance information 253 and informationregarding spot air time 251 can be collected or otherwise obtained bymedia broadcaster 286 or another entity, and provided as mediaattribution information 255 to media attribution dashboard 241. Mediaattribution dashboard 241 can provide the media attribution data 239 toplanning system 273 automatically, or based on input from media buyer203, or otherwise. In various embodiments, flexibility attributes canadjusted on a continuing basis, periodically, in response to receipt ofupdated dynamic inputs, or the like.

In various embodiments, planning system 273 can generate new schedules221 periodically, on demand, or in response to occurrence of a triggerevent. The new schedules 221 can include updated order-to-inventoryassociations based on modified flexibility attributes. For example, ifmedia attribution data indicates that an order is not achieving targetsindicated in the order's specification, the flexibility of that ordercan be decreased, which may mean an increase in the flexibilityattribute value of that order. The new flexibility value can be used byplanning system 273 to generate new associations, and to generate newschedules 221 including those associations. The new schedules can betransmitted to delivery system 275, which can choose the best creativeto be used by new schedules 221 based on ad rotation rules, and transmita completed log to media broadcaster 286 for broadcast. In someembodiments, delivery system 275 can also obtain and use real-timeenvironment data 261 and real time station and show content 263 tochoose an appropriate creative.

Referring next to FIG. 3, a diagram illustrating an inventory selectionsystem 300, will be discussed in accordance with various embodiments ofthe present disclosure. Inventory selection system 300 includes yieldmanagement system 310, planning system 373, ratings analysis system 320,and unified plan report module 330. Planning system 373 can receive anelectronic request associated with a potential order, such as emailrequest 303, from a media buyer. The electronic request can includebudget information, information indicating target Gross Rating Points(GRP)/Gross Impressions (GImps), and target Cost Per Rating Point(CPP)/Cost Per Thousand (CPM), flexibility information, and/or similarinformation. Planning system 373 can obtain information such as customaudience ratings 313, nationwide ratings 315, and inventory availabilityand pricing information from yield management system 310. In at leastone embodiment, the inventory availability information can includeinformation identifying both booked and unbooked inventory, andflexibility attributes associated with the booked inventory. In at leastone embodiment, the flexibility attributes associated with a bookedinventory item can be indirectly associated with that inventory itemthrough the inventory items association with a booked order's,flexibility attribute.

Planning system 373 can use the collection information to generate planlineup 325, which in some embodiments takes the form of a commaseparated value (CSV) file, although other file types can be used.Planning system 373 can also generate plan summary metrics 323indicating an expected performance of plan lineup 325.

Plan lineup 325 can be delivered to ratings analysis system 320, whichin some embodiments is a third party system used for independentanalysis of the effectiveness of plan lineup 325, and to unified planreport module 330. Ratings analysis system 320 can generate audiencereach report 317 and lineup report 319, while unified plan report module330 can generate a unified audience reach report 333 based on planlineup 325 and unified custom audience ratings 331. The two reportsgenerated by ratings analysis system 320 and the report generated byunified plan report module 330 can be delivered to a media buyer, forexample via email submission 335, which is transmitted to a media buyerin response to receipt of email request 303. The media buyer, using boththe independent and unified reports included in email submission 335 candetermine whether or not to book an order based on the plan lineup 325generated by planning system 373.

Referring next to FIG. 4, a diagram illustrating a traffic and billingworkflow in a media broadcast system 400, will be discussed inaccordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure. Mediabroadcast system 400 can include: planning system 473, which canassociate orders to booked and unbooked inventory using dynamicallyvarying flexibility attributes and generate a plan lineup 425; orderdelivery system 475, which can receive plan lineup 425 and split theplan lineup into station-specific orders, and transmit each order to theappropriate station; traffic systems 420, each of which can beassociated with one or more media stations, and each of which cangenerate a traffic log 435 including an identification of spotsscheduled for broadcast; playout systems 410, each of which can controland automate various media broadcast functions for its associatedstation; and a billing system 450, which can receive order entry andfulfilment information from each of the traffic systems 420 to generateinvoices, process payments, and the like.

Referring next to FIG. 5, a diagram illustrating a submission summarychart 500, will be discussed in accordance with various embodiments ofthe present disclosure. Submission summary chart 500 can includeorder-specific information indicating performance of an order to date,which can be useful in allowing media buyers to evaluate order/planperformance.

Referring next to FIG. 6, a diagram illustrating a database schema 600associating orders with inventory, will be discussed in accordance withvarious embodiments of the present disclosure. Database schema 600 caninclude Orders Table 610, Association Table 620, Inventory Table 630,and Order Attribute Table 640. Orders Table 610 includes informationsuch as order ID 611, order name, advertiser name, order start and enddate, target audience (audience cohort), desired number of impressions,an invoice amount, and the like. Inventory Table 630 includesinformation about an inventory item, for example an inventory ID 631, astation associated with the inventory, a Daypart of the inventory item,start and end times, spot price, spot length, a Booked indicator 633identifying whether the inventory item is currently booked, and similarinformation.

Association Table 620 includes information such as order ID 621,inventory ID 622, association score 624, sometimes referred to herein asa flexibility attribute score, and association status 626. AssociationTable 620 can be used to establish the association between the orderidentified in order ID 611 of Orders Table 610 and the inventory itemidentified in Inventory ID 631 of Inventory Table 630. Association score624 indicates that order number xyz456 has a 0.9 level of associationwith inventory item abc123. The level of association can also bereferred to as a flexibility attribute value, and can be used to definea level of flexibility with which order number xyz456 and inventory itemabc123 are associated.

In at least one embodiment, the flexibility attribute value, or theassociation score 624, can be used by a planning system to determinewhether or not inventory item abc123 can be disassociated from ordernumber xyz456, and re-associated with a different order. In variousembodiments, a flexibility attribute score such as association score 624can be determined based on one or more flexibility attributes includedin an order, and altered over time to account for performance feedback,time remaining for order fulfillment, and the like. By altering theflexibility attribute score of an order associated with an inventoryitem, that is by changing the association score 624, removing a currentassociation can be made more or less likely.

Order Attribute Table 640 can include multiple attribute IDs 641, 642,and 643, multiple Order IDs 644, 645, and 646, multiple Order Types 647,648, and 649, multiple Order Keys 651, 653, and 655, and multiple OrderValues 665, 667, and 669. As illustrated in database schema 600, thereare three different types of order attributes: Flexibility Type 647,Restriction Type 648, and Target Type 649. At the Flexibility Type 647and Restriction Type 648 can be considered flexibility attributes. Forexample, Order Attribute Table 640 indicates that order number xyz456 isflexible with regard to week, as shown by Order Key 651, and any weekcan be chosen, as shown by Order Value 665. Conversely, Order numberxyz456 is not flexible with regard to station, as shown by Order Key653; instead it is restricted to station 123, as shown by Order Value667.

Target type 649 is slightly different from Flexibility Type 647 andRestriction Type 648, because it references the occurrence of an event.More specifically, order xyz456 is targeting a weather event, as shownby Order Key 655, and more specifically Rain, as shown by Order Value669. Thus, in the illustrated embodiment, association of order numberxyz456 to an inventory item can be delayed until a weather reportindicates that it is raining, or has recently rained, in a locationserved by station 123. Once a rain event is identified, during any weekbetween Apr. 15, 2016 and Dec. 15, 2016 order xyz456 can be associatedwith inventory item abc123 with a 0.9 flexibility attribute value.

Referring next to FIG. 7, a table 700 illustrating booked and unbookedinventory, along with flexibility attributes associated with theinventory, will be discussed in accordance with various embodiments ofthe present disclosure. Table 700 illustrates that both booked andunbooked inventory can be considered by a planning system whendynamically re-associating orders to inventory. Each cell in Table 700represents a day part on a particular station, and shows a flexibilityattribute value, between 0 and 1, of an order associated with thatcombination of day part and station. A zero can be used to indicatecomplete flexibility, and any illustrated day part/station combinationthat is not yet associated with an order can be set to have aflexibility attribute value of 0.

Referring next to FIG. 8-12, various order-to-inventory associationscenarios, will be discussed in accordance with various embodiments ofthe present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 8, scenario 800 illustratesweighted associations, and optimization against already bookedinventory. Scenario 800 involves two orders, or plans: Plan 802, whichis flexible across weeks, and with regard to station, but is notflexible regarding daypart, which is designated as AM drive; and Plan804, which is not flexible with regard to either week or daypart, but isflexible with regard to station.

Plan 802 can be associated with inventory ID 3 and inventory ID 7, asshown by Association ID 1 and Association ID 2. Inventory ID 3 is in theAM drive daypart of Week 2 on station X, and inventory ID 7 is in the AMdrive daypart of Week 2 on station Y. Similarly, Plan 804 can beassociated with inventory ID 1 and inventory ID 5, as shown byAssociation ID 3 and Association ID 4. Inventory ID 1 is in the AM drivedaypart of Week 1 on station X, and inventory ID 5 is in the AM drivedaypart of Week 1 on station Y.

In previous systems, Plan 802 might have been booked into the AM Driveslots on station X, i.e. Inventory ID 1 and Inventory ID 3. If so, Plan804 could not have been accommodated based on the requirement to airduring week 1 AM Drive, because there would have been only a single AMDrive slot open during week 1, namely Inventory ID 5. However, becauseflexibility attribute values, or association ID values, are used invarious embodiments, at least some booking conflicts can be avoided.Furthermore, because various embodiments employ dynamic optimization ofassociations, even if the initial assignment of Plan 802 to inventoryitems caused a conflict, that conflict could be resolved byre-associating Plan 802 with different inventory items.

Referring to FIG. 9, Scenario 900, continuous optimization andreevaluation of association for pacing is illustrated. Scenario 900involves Plan 906, Plan 902, and plan 904. As illustrated, Plan 906 isflexible with regard to daypart, week and station, and is scheduled torun for 10 weeks. Plan 902 is not flexible on daypart, and must runduring a two week period. Thus, Plan 902 is only somewhat flexible onweek. Plan 904 must run during a single week during AM drive, and isthus not flexible on week or daypart. Because Plan 906 has a long periodof fulfillment, during the early weeks of the 10-week period theplanning system can assign Plan 906 a low association, or flexibilityattribute value, making the association between Plan 906 and InventoryID 4 less “sticky,” and making it easier to replace the association withPlan 906 with a different plan having a higher association value. Recallthat in this embodiment a higher association or flexibility valueindicates less flexibility.

Assuming for purposes of this example that during weeks 1-8 Plan 906 didnot deliver the expected number of impressions, during week 9 theAssociation ID value of Plan 906 can be increased to make it moredifficult to replace an association of Plan 906 to an inventory item.

Referring to FIG. 10, Scenario 1000, continuous optimization andreevaluation of associations based on real time data is illustrated anddiscussed. Scenario 1000 involves Plans 1002, 804, and 1006. Plans 1002and 804 are associated to inventory as previously discussed. However,the planning system can delay association of Plan 1006 until occurrenceof a specified event, i.e. the forecast of snow.

Referring next to FIG. 11, Scenario 1100, which is another example ofcontinuous optimization and reevaluation of associations based on realtime data, is discussed. In Scenario 1100, Plans 1002, 804, and 1106 areeach initially associated to inventory. However, after week 1performance data received at the planning system, for example from abroadcasting system, a third party monitoring system, a media automationsystem, a traffic and billing system, or the like, indicates that movingPlan 1106 to another station would be more likely to satisfy planrequirements. In response to making the determination that Plan 1106should be moved to another station, Plan 1106 is disassociated fromInventory ID 3, and moved to Inventory ID 8.

Referring next to FIG. 12, Scenario 1200, which illustrates employingflexibility attribute values to schedule stand-by orders for last minuteunsold inventory is discussed. Plans 1002 and 804 are associated toinventory, while Plan 1206 is booked, but association to inventory isdelayed until occurrence of an event, namely the identification ofunsold inventory within a threshold period of time prior to air time.Thus, if unbooked inventory is identified, for example, three hoursbefore air time, Plan 1206 can be booked to take advantage of thatinventory.

Referring now to FIG. 13, a high-level block diagram of a processingsystem is illustrated and discussed, according to various embodiments ofthe present disclosure. Processing system 1300 includes one or morecentral processing units, such as CPU A 1305 and CPU B 1307, which maybe conventional microprocessors interconnected with various other unitsvia at least one system bus 1310. CPU A 1305 and CPU B 1307 may beseparate cores of an individual, multi-core processor, or individualprocessors connected via a specialized bus 1311. In some embodiments,CPU A 1305 or CPU B 1307 may be a specialized processor, such as agraphics processor, other co-processor, or the like.

Processing system 1300 includes random access memory (RAM) 1320;read-only memory (ROM) 1315, wherein the ROM 1315 could also be erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM) or electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EEPROM); input/output (I/O) adapter 1325,for connecting peripheral devices such as disk units 1330, optical drive1336, or tape drive 1337 to system bus 1310; a user interface adapter1340 for connecting keyboard 1345, mouse 1350, speaker 1355, microphone1360, or other user interface devices to system bus 1310; communicationsadapter 1365 for connecting processing system 1300 to an informationnetwork such as the Internet or any of various local area networks, widearea networks, telephone networks, or the like; and display adapter 1370for connecting system bus 1310 to a display device such as monitor 1375.Mouse 1350 has a series of buttons 1380, 1385 and may be used to controla cursor shown on monitor 1375.

It will be understood that processing system 1300 may include othersuitable data processing systems without departing from the scope of thepresent disclosure. For example, processing system 1300 may include bulkstorage and cache memories, which provide temporary storage of at leastsome program code in order to reduce the number of times code must beretrieved from bulk storage during execution.

As may be used herein, the terms “substantially” and “approximately”provides an industry-accepted tolerance for its corresponding termand/or relativity between items. Such an industry-accepted toleranceranges from less than one percent to fifty percent and corresponds to,but is not limited to, component values, integrated circuit processvariations, temperature variations, rise and fall times, and/or thermalnoise. Such relativity between items ranges from a difference of a fewpercent to magnitude differences. As may also be used herein, theterm(s) “configured to”, “operably coupled to”, “coupled to”, and/or“coupling” includes direct coupling between items and/or indirectcoupling between items via an intervening item (e.g., an item includes,but is not limited to, a component, an element, a circuit, and/or amodule) where, for an example of indirect coupling, the intervening itemdoes not modify the information of a signal but may adjust its currentlevel, voltage level, and/or power level. As may further be used herein,inferred coupling (i.e., where one element is coupled to another elementby inference) includes direct and indirect coupling between two items inthe same manner as “coupled to”. As may even further be used herein, theterm “configured to”, “operable to”, “coupled to”, or “operably coupledto” indicates that an item includes one or more of power connections,input(s), output(s), etc., to perform, when activated, one or more itscorresponding functions and may further include inferred coupling to oneor more other items. As may still further be used herein, the term“associated with”, includes direct and/or indirect coupling of separateitems and/or one item being embedded within another item.

As may be used herein, the term “compares favorably”, indicates that acomparison between two or more items, signals, etc., provides a desiredrelationship. For example, when the desired relationship is that signal1 has a greater magnitude than signal 2, a favorable comparison may beachieved when the magnitude of signal 1 is greater than that of signal 2or when the magnitude of signal 2 is less than that of signal 1.

As may also be used herein, the terms “processing module”, “processingcircuit”, “processor”, and/or “processing unit” may be a singleprocessing device or a plurality of processing devices. Such aprocessing device may be a microprocessor, micro-controller, digitalsignal processor, microcomputer, central processing unit, fieldprogrammable gate array, programmable logic device, state machine, logiccircuitry, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device thatmanipulates signals (analog and/or digital) based on hard coding of thecircuitry and/or operational instructions. The processing module,module, processing circuit, and/or processing unit may be, or furtherinclude, memory and/or an integrated memory element, which may be asingle memory device, a plurality of memory devices, and/or embeddedcircuitry of another processing module, module, processing circuit,and/or processing unit. Such a memory device may be a read-only memory,random access memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, staticmemory, dynamic memory, flash memory, cache memory, and/or any devicethat stores digital information. Note that if the processing module,module, processing circuit, and/or processing unit includes more thanone processing device, the processing devices may be centrally located(e.g., directly coupled together via a wired and/or wireless busstructure) or may be distributedly located (e.g., cloud computing viaindirect coupling via a local area network and/or a wide area network).Further note that if the processing module, module, processing circuit,and/or processing unit implements one or more of its functions via astate machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logiccircuitry, the memory and/or memory element storing the correspondingoperational instructions may be embedded within, or external to, thecircuitry comprising the state machine, analog circuitry, digitalcircuitry, and/or logic circuitry. Still further note that, the memoryelement may store, and the processing module, module, processingcircuit, and/or processing unit executes, hard coded and/or operationalinstructions corresponding to at least some of the steps and/orfunctions illustrated in one or more of the figures. Such a memorydevice or memory element can be included in an article of manufacture.

One or more embodiments of an invention have been described above withthe aid of method steps illustrating the performance of specifiedfunctions and relationships thereof. The boundaries and sequence ofthese functional building blocks and method steps have been arbitrarilydefined herein for convenience of description. Alternate boundaries andsequences can be defined so long as the specified functions andrelationships are appropriately performed. Any such alternate boundariesor sequences are thus within the scope and spirit of the claims.Further, the boundaries of these functional building blocks have beenarbitrarily defined for convenience of description. Alternate boundariescould be defined as long as the certain significant functions areappropriately performed. Similarly, flow diagram blocks may also havebeen arbitrarily defined herein to illustrate certain significantfunctionality. To the extent used, the flow diagram block boundaries andsequence could have been defined otherwise and still perform the certainsignificant functionality. Such alternate definitions of both functionalbuilding blocks and flow diagram blocks and sequences are thus withinthe scope and spirit of the claimed invention. One of average skill inthe art will also recognize that the functional building blocks, andother illustrative blocks, modules and components herein, can beimplemented as illustrated or by discrete components, applicationspecific integrated circuits, processors executing appropriate softwareand the like or any combination thereof.

The one or more embodiments are used herein to illustrate one or moreaspects, one or more features, one or more concepts, and/or one or moreexamples of the invention. A physical embodiment of an apparatus, anarticle of manufacture, a machine, and/or of a process may include oneor more of the aspects, features, concepts, examples, etc. describedwith reference to one or more of the embodiments discussed herein.Further, from figure to figure, the embodiments may incorporate the sameor similarly named functions, steps, modules, etc. that may use the sameor different reference numbers and, as such, the functions, steps,modules, etc. may be the same or similar functions, steps, modules, etc.or different ones.

Unless specifically stated to the contra, signals to, from, and/orbetween elements in a figure of any of the figures presented herein maybe analog or digital, continuous time or discrete time, and single-endedor differential. For instance, if a signal path is shown as asingle-ended path, it also represents a differential signal path.Similarly, if a signal path is shown as a differential path, it alsorepresents a single-ended signal path. While one or more particulararchitectures are described herein, other architectures can likewise beimplemented that use one or more data buses not expressly shown, directconnectivity between elements, and/or indirect coupling between otherelements as recognized by one of average skill in the art.

The term “module” is used in the description of one or more of theembodiments. A module includes a processing module, a processor, afunctional block, hardware, and/or memory that stores operationalinstructions for performing one or more functions as may be describedherein. Note that, if the module is implemented via hardware, thehardware may operate independently and/or in conjunction with softwareand/or firmware. As also used herein, a module may contain one or moresub-modules, each of which may be one or more modules.

While particular combinations of various functions and features of theone or more embodiments have been expressly described herein, othercombinations of these features and functions are likewise possible. Thepresent disclosure of an invention is not limited by the particularexamples disclosed herein and expressly incorporates these othercombinations.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for use in a media automation system,the method comprising: receiving, at a processing device configured toimplement a planning system, a first media advertising orderspecification associated with a first media advertising order, the firstmedia advertising order specification including a first flexibilityattribute indicating a first level of flexibility associated with thefirst media advertising order; obtaining the first flexibility attributefrom an order attribute table maintained by the media automation system,the order attribute table including one or more flexibility attributesassociated with the first media advertising order; obtaining, at theplanning system, both booked inventory and unbooked inventory from asecond processing device configured to implement a traffic and billingsystem, the booked inventory including a booked inventory item havingbeen previously associated with a second media advertising order havinga second flexibility attribute indicating a second level of flexibilityassociated with the second media advertising order, and the unbookedinventory including an unbooked inventory item not yet associated with amedia advertising order; obtaining the second flexibility attribute froman association table maintained by the media automation system, theassociation table including a previous association linking the secondmedia advertising order to the booked inventory item; generating, at theplanning system, a first association linking the first media advertisingorder to the unbooked inventory item, and a second association linkingthe first media advertising order to the booked inventory item, whereinthe first association and the second association are generated, based atleast in part, on the first flexibility attribute and the secondflexibility attribute; storing, in the association table, the firstassociation linking the first media advertising order to the unbookedinventory item; updating the association table to replace the previousassociation with the second association; generating, at a planningsystem, a non-guaranteed order including the first association and thesecond association; and transmitting the non-guaranteed order from theplanning system to a media delivery system.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the traffic and billing system is part of the media deliverysystem, the method further comprising: generating, at the traffic andbilling system, a traffic log; and transmitting the traffic log to amedia server for broadcast.
 3. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: monitoring a performance of the media advertising order;periodically evaluating the first association and the second associationto determine, based on both the performance and the first flexibilityattribute, whether either of the first association or the secondassociation is to be changed; removing at least one of the firstassociation and the second association in response to a positivedetermination; and generating at least a third association linking thefirst media advertising order to one of a different booked or unbookedinventory item in response to removing the first association.
 4. Themethod of claim 3, further comprising: transmitting, to the mediadelivery system, an updated, non-guaranteed order including the at leasta third association.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein generating the atleast a third association includes: moving a previously scheduledadvertisement to one of a different time slot, or a same time slot on adifferent day.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first mediaadvertising order specification includes a target attribute, the methodfurther comprising: monitoring for occurrence of the target attribute;in response to the occurrence of the target attribute; removing at leastone of the first association and the second association; and generatingat least a third association linking the first media advertising orderto one of a different booked or unbooked inventory item.
 7. The methodof claim 1, wherein the first flexibility attribute indicates that thefirst media advertising order is flexible on at least one of thefollowing: week, date within the week, daypart, or station.
 8. A mediaautomation system including: a planning system including: a processor;memory coupled to the processor; a network interface coupled to theprocessor and configured to receive a first media advertising orderspecification associated with a first media advertising order, the firstmedia advertising order specification including a first flexibilityattribute indicating a first level of flexibility associated with thefirst media advertising order; a traffic and billing system including: aprocessor; memory coupled to the processor; a network interface coupledto the processor; the traffic and billing system configured to transmitinformation regarding both booked inventory and unbooked inventory tothe planning system via the network interface, the information regardingthe booked inventory including information associated with a bookedinventory item having been previously associated with a second mediaadvertising order having a second flexibility attribute indicating asecond level of flexibility associated with the second media advertisingorder, and the information regarding the unbooked inventory including anunbooked inventory item not yet associated with a media advertisingorder; the planning system configured to: generate a first associationlinking the first media advertising order to the unbooked inventoryitem; store the first association in an association table; generating asecond association linking the first media advertising order to thebooked inventory item, update the association table to replace aprevious association, linking the second media advertising order to thebooked inventory item with the second association linking the firstmedia advertising order to the booked inventory item: wherein the firstassociation and the second association are generated, at least in part,based on the first flexibility attribute and the second flexibilityattribute; generate a non-guaranteed order including the firstassociation and the second association; and transmit the non-guaranteedorder from the planning system to a media delivery system.
 9. The mediaautomation system of claim 8, wherein the first media advertising orderspecification includes a target attribute, the planning system furtherconfigured to: monitor for occurrence of the target attribute; and delaygeneration of at least one of the first association or the secondassociation until the occurrence of the target attribute.
 10. The mediaautomation system of claim 8, wherein the traffic and billing system isincluded in the media delivery system, and is further configured to:generate a traffic log based on the non-guaranteed order; and transmitthe traffic log to a media server.
 11. The media automation system ofclaim 8, wherein the planning system is further configured to: monitor aperformance of the media advertising order; periodically evaluate thefirst association and the second association to determine, based on boththe performance and the first flexibility attribute, whether either ofthe first association or the second association is to be changed; and inresponse to performance below a threshold value, replace at least one ofthe first association and the second association with a thirdassociation linking the first media advertising order to one of adifferent booked or unbooked inventory item.
 12. The media automationsystem of claim 11, further comprising: transmitting, to the mediadelivery system, an updated, non-guaranteed order including the thirdassociation.
 13. The media automation system of claim 11, whereinreplacing the at least one of the first association and the secondassociation with a third association includes: moving a previouslyscheduled advertisement to at least one of a different daypart or adifferent station.
 14. The media automation system of claim 8, whereinthe first flexibility attribute indicates that the first mediaadvertising order is flexible with respect to at least one of a week ora day of the week in which the media advertising order is fulfilled, butnot flexible with respect to a daypart.
 15. A media broadcast planningsystem including: a processor; memory coupled to the processor; anetwork interface coupled to the processor and configured to receive: afirst media advertising order specification associated with a firstmedia advertising order, the first media advertising order specificationincluding a first flexibility attribute indicating a first level offlexibility associated with the first media advertising order;information regarding both booked inventory and unbooked inventory, theinformation regarding the booked inventory including informationassociated with a booked inventory item having been previouslyassociated with a second media advertising order having a secondflexibility attribute indicating a second level of flexibilityassociated with the second media advertising order, and the informationregarding the unbooked inventory including an unbooked inventory itemnot yet associated with a media advertising order; the processorconfigured to: generate a first association linking the first mediaadvertising order to the unbooked inventory item; store the firstassociation in an association table; generating a second associationlinking the first media advertising order to the booked inventory itemupdate the association table to replace a previous association, linkingthe second media advertising order to the booked inventory item with thesecond association linking the first media advertising order to thebooked inventory item: wherein the first association and the secondassociation are generated, at least in part, based on the firstflexibility attribute and the second flexibility attribute; generate anon-guaranteed order including the first association and the secondassociation; and transmit the non-guaranteed order from the mediabroadcast planning system to a media delivery system via the networkinterface.
 16. The media broadcast planning system of claim 15, whereinthe processor is further configured to: monitor a performance of themedia advertising order; periodically evaluate the first association andthe second association to determine, based on both the performance andthe first flexibility attribute, whether either of the first associationor the second association is to be changed; remove at least one of thefirst association and the second association in response to a positivedetermination; and generate at least a third association linking thefirst media advertising order to one of a different booked or unbookedinventory item in response to removing the first association.
 17. Themedia broadcast planning system of claim 16, wherein the processor isfurther configured to: transmit, to the media delivery system, anupdated, non-guaranteed order including the at least a thirdassociation.
 18. The media broadcast planning system of claim 16,wherein processor is further configured to generate the at least a thirdassociation by moving a previously scheduled advertisement to one of adifferent station, or a different daypart on a same day.
 19. The mediabroadcast planning system of claim 15, wherein the first mediaadvertising order specification includes a target attribute, theprocessor further configured to: monitor for occurrence of the targetattribute; in response to the occurrence of the target attribute; removeat least one of the first association and the second association; andgenerate at least a third association linking the first mediaadvertising order to one of a different booked or unbooked inventoryitem.
 20. The media broadcast planning system of claim 15, wherein thefirst flexibility attribute indicates that the first media advertisingorder is flexible on at least one of the following: week or station.